Page 12 - Banking Finance September 2022

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IT and business decision makers from aims to help civil servants in helping the said GST will not be applicable on resi-
over 29 countries to compile its latest underprivileged. It will help them in dential units if they are rented out to
research. delivering last-mile social welfare ser- private persons for personal use.
vices, said a statement from Microsoft.
About one-third (32%) of respondents The government dismissed media re-
said that assessing risk is the main area The CBC does capacity building for the ports which claimed that there is an
of attack surface management they ministries of Defense, Skill Develop- 18% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on
struggle with. As a result, they feel ment and Entrepreneurship, Expendi- house rent paid by tenants. In a tweet,
most exposed to ransomware (83%), ture, Finance, Social Justice, Civil Avia- the government said GST would be
phishing (85%) and IoT attacks (81%). tion, Ports and Shipping, and Labour. levied only when the residential unit is
A major competence gap identified rented out to a business entity.
Taxpayers won't be eli- among civil servants was the lack of "No GST when it is rented to private
digital productivity application skills
gible for Atal Pension person for personal use. No GST even
needed while working on Microsoft
if proprietor or partner of firm rents
Scheme from Oct 1 Office tools like Word, Excel, and
residence for personal use," it said.
PowerPoint presentation.
Income-tax payers will not be allowed
KPMG in India Partner Indirect Tax
to enroll in the government's pension
Abhishek Jain said the clarification pro-
Shah for setting up of 2
security scheme Atal Pension Yojana
vides relief to GST-registered propri-
(APY) from October 1. lakh agri credit societies etors or partners in GST-registered
"From October 1, any citizen who is or Pitching for setting up an additional 2 firms who take on rent immovable
has been an income-tax payer, shall lakh new primary agricultural credit property for their personal use such as
not be eligible to join APY," the finance society (PACS) across the country in the renting of a house for family accommo-
ministry said in the notification issued. next five years, home and cooperation dation.
minister Amit Shah said the PACS are
In a tweet, the department of finan-
the soul of farm credit system and
cial services under the finance ministry, Rise in currency in circula-
therefore it's necessary to strengthen
noted that the amendment in the
them by increasing their number from tion slows
scheme was done for better targeting
95,000 to around 3 lakh. India's currency in circulation has in-
of pension benefits to underserved sec-
creased by only around 500 billion ru-
tion of population. "Effective in pro- "If the number of PACS reach 3 lakh
pees in the first four months of this fi-
spective manner from October 1, in- panchayats in the country, then distri-
nancial year that began in April, which
come-tax payer enrolled before Octo- bution of Rs 10 lakh crore agriculture
is nearly half the pace of the same
ber 1 to continue in the scheme," it finance could be possible through co-
period a year ago.
added. operatives," said Shah while address-
ing a national conference on rural co- "Economic activity is completely back
operative banks. to pre-pandemic levels, and hence
Microsoft teams up with
there is hardly any need for panic-
"With the foundation of the 3 lakh
govt to train 250K bureau- driven cash withdrawals, which is lead-
PACS being strengthened, district coop-
crats erative banks will be strengthened, ing to a drop in cash in circulation," a
trader with a state-run bank said.
Microsoft and the Indian government which in turn will lead to the strength-
will collaborate for a programme to ening of the state cooperative banks", The rise in the cash in circulation for
train nearly 2.5 million civil servants in said Shah. April-July stood at 508 billion rupees
using the company's suite of digital ($6.38 billion), as compared to 928 bil-
tools. No GST on residential pre- lion rupees for the similar period last
year and a mammoth 2.25 trillion ru-
The partnership between the tech gi-
mises if rented out for
pees in 2020-21, the peak of lockdown,
ant, the Ministry of Skill Development
personal use: Govt data from the Reserve Bank of India
& Entrepreneurship (MSDE), and the
Capacity Building Commission (CBC) The government on August 12, 2022 showed.
12 | 2022 | SEPTEMBER | BANKING FINANCE